Iran oil bourse launch underwayPersian Journal
Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said here on Friday that all preparatory requirements were arranged for launching the oil stock market in the country.

Speaking to the reporters, Vaziri-Hamaneh said that all un-subsidized oil products can be offered in this stock market.
(16 Sep 2006)The remainder of the article provides no futher info on the bourse. -AF

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who greeted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Caracas' main airport, said the two countries plan to set up a plant for producing gunpowder and other components of ammunition.

"Iran is generously transferring technology to us," Chavez told troops shortly before the Iranian leader arrived. He said Iran and Venezuela will also set up factories to build cars and produce plastics - efforts to be formalized with the signing of accords during Ahmadinejad's two-day visit.

Chavez said Iran and Venezuela are "two heroic nations" with "two revolutions that are giving each other a hand." ...

Ahmadinejad has said he and Chavez are like "brothers" in a great global struggle, and Chavez promises to argue for Iran's nuclear program if he wins a seat on the Security Council in a secret-ballot vote next month.
(17 Sep 2006)Related: Chavez vows to defend Iran against any attack

China asserts Iran's right to civilian nuclear useReuters
Iran has the right to harness nuclear energy for civilian use but should abide by its international commitments on the issue, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in comments published on Sunday.

Yang's remarks come a day after state media carried comments by Premier Wen Jiabao urging Iran to show more flexibility on its nuclear programme.
(17 Sep 2006)

Sinopec will hold a 51 percent interest in Yadavaran, one of the largest untapped oil fields in the world, with estimated reserves of over 30 billion barrels, the newspaper said in a report on its website Friday.

India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will have a 29 percent share, while the remaining 20 percent will be reserved for Iranian firms, well-informed sources were quoted as saying.
(14 Sep 2006)

What War With Iran Would Look Like (And How To Avoid It)MICHAEL DUFFY, Time
A conflict is no longer quite so unthinkable. Here's how the U.S. would fight such a war - and the huge price it would have to pay to win it
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The first message was routine enough: a "Prepare to Deploy Order" sent through Naval communications channels to a submarine, an Aegis-class cruiser, two minesweepers and two minehunters.

The orders didn't actually command the ships out of port; they just said be ready to move by October 1.

A deployment of minesweepers to the east coast of Iran would seem to suggest that a much discussed, but until now largely theoretical, prospect has become real: that the U.S. may be preparing for war with Iran.
(17 Sep 2006)

Iran Nukes: Why a Compromise May Be in the WorksTONY KARON, Time
When it comes to anticipating Middle East crises, the oil futures market plays the canary in the coalmine. And the political risk factor that has done most to propel oil prices to record highs over the past six months has been the prospect of war between the United States and Iran. It's not hard to see why: Iran is the fourth-largest supplier in an already tight world market, and its threat to respond to any attack by closing the Straits of Hormuz — the maritime bottleneck through which oil from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States must pass — could send oil markets into shock. But oil futures fell to just under $64 a barrel this week, from close to $77 a month ago, suggesting that oil markets are not expecting a confrontation with Iran any time soon.

Oil traders' anxieties may have been soothed by the fact that Iranian and European leaders are now actively pursuing a compromise aimed at defusing the crisis over Tehran's nuclear program. And the U.S., which began lobbying for sanctions when Iran failed to heed the U.N. Security Council demand that it cease enriching uranium by August 31, may have little choice but to give European diplomacy more time. Even key European allies have little appetite for a confrontation beginning with sanctions — particularly while Iran is offering a diplomatic alternative, however imperfect, for pursuing the same goals.
(14 Sep 2006)Related: Europeans Trying to Grease Wheels for U.S. Talks With Iran

Washington, perhaps coincidentally, has intensified sanctions over Iran’s backing for “terrorist” groups in the fortnight since the country ignored a UN deadline to suspend its uranium enrichment by August 31.

On September 8, the Treasury Department froze Bank Saderat, one of Iran’s largest lenders with some 3,400 branches, from doing any business with US-owned banks on the grounds that it supports terrorism.